The It Girl
by storiesbymish
Summary: Mindy and Annie have a little heart-to-heart one Tuesday night. One-shot.


Annie Montrose was the last person Mindy expected to see in SatCon on a Tuesday night - or rather, Wednesday morning. She sprang to her feet, knocking over her coffee, much to Annie's amusement and the annoyance of the cleaner lady.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Mindy muttered in her general direction. She turned to Annie. "Um, hi. What are you doing here?"

"Picking up some imagery that you promised me last week?" The PR director raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow and grinned. Mindy's brain connected the dots and she groaned again.

"Shit. I'm sorry, Annie. I've been really busy with-"

"Saving Watney's life, I know. But the press are getting annoyed. The last time we gave them an update was three weeks ago." Annie sighed and shook her head, her blonde hair somehow still perfectly in place after a whole day of running around NASA. "If I don't get some imagery and release another statement, they're going to start assuming that he's died or some shit."

"Fuck," said Mindy, wide-eyed. "I didn't know that the press was like that."

Annie laughed, but it was empty. "Welcome to my world, Mindy." She sat down in the empty seat next to Mindy. "Now, about that imagery..."

"Oh, yes!" Mindy sat down as the cleaner shuffled away, grumbling. Clicking away at the computer, she continued to talk. "Y'know, I was scared of you at first."

Beside her, Annie laughed. "What? You were scared of _me?"_

Mindy shrugged as she loaded the imagery, tapping her fingernails against the table as she waited. "Yeah. I mean, how could I not? You're kind of the it girl in the NASA world."

"Am I?" said Annie, after a long pause.

Mindy dragged the photos into an email. "Um, yeah. You're 29, and already PR Director of NASA. You're confident, respected, and everyone really likes you. You're everything I wish I was." She couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Most of it was luck, really," Annie said quietly. "I was a PR employee when the PR Director was fired. I was really cranky the morning of my interview, and I snapped at Teddy when he asked me something stupid." She laughed a little. "I thought I was done for, but he laughed and told me I had the tough attitude for the job, and reminded me not to snap at any of the press when at conferences. The next morning, I had the job." Annie sighed. "It was just luck. While you being promoted was because of your hard work."

"Nah, not really," interjected Mindy. Her mouth twisted as Teddy's words from all those months ago came back to her. "Remember? I was just in the hot seat when the imagery came through."

"But not everyone would've checked the imagery. You did, and that's why Mark will be coming home alive." Annie looked around nervously. "Um, I'm not supposed to say that. Venkat got a shitload of shit from Teddy when he said that in front of the whole world. Dickhead."

Mindy had to laugh at Annie's choice of words as she uploaded the last image. "You can say that."

Annie frowned from beside her. "What?"

"What I mean is-" she typed in Annie's email address "-if I called Venkat a dickhead, I'd be fired on the spot. No questions asked." Mindy took a deep breath and looked up. "But if you call him that, it's just normal and no one gives a shit, because you're Annie Montrose, it girl of NASA."

Annie laughed. "Haven't you considered that you're the it girl of SatCon?"

Mindy stopped typing and stared at her in confusion. "Huh?"

"I mean, you have more power than the Director of SatCon now," said Annie. "Teddy, Mitch, Bruce, Venkat... they all depend on you to get the photos to them. Everyone - well, not everyone-" off Mindy's skeptical look "- at least everyone in NASA's Houston base knows who you are."

"Huh." Mindy stared at her. "I never thought about it like that."

"I never thought about myself as the it girl, either." Annie smiled at her before turning to Mindy's computer. "You going to send those photos to me, or are we going to stay up talking all night long?"

"Oh - sorry." Mindy flushed and hit the send button.

Annie's phone pinged and she grinned. "Thanks, Mindy," she said, grabbing her coat off the back of the chair. "I'll see you at the next meeting. Get some sleep - it's 1AM, for fuck's sake."

"Can't," said Mindy to her retreating figure. "I sleep on Mars time now."

Annie snickered.

Needless to say, both awoke the next day with a lighter heart and smile on her face.

"It girl, huh?"


End file.
